A Blessing in Disguise
by Roadblock1964
Summary: Twelve demigods, each with different backgrounds, parentages, and personalities, are brought together by the only thing that separates them from everybody else: they have no fate. Possessing both an advantageous gift and a debilitating curse, they must master their abilities before it's too late for them and the rest of the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Damien**

 **The adventure begins! Oh wait, it doesn't.**

* * *

"It's forty two. That's the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything."

Seemingly unaware of pop literature, my older brother James asked, "What are you talking about? What is the question? What is seven times seven?"

"Seven times seven is 49, and I don't know. I haven't read the second book yet," I say.

"Well when you do finish it," he says, "tell me what the question is."

"Will do bub. I won't forget. Remind me to stop by the lilbrary later and I'll pick up a copy."

If Jimmy wasn't such a tactical master, I think the general consensus around camp would be that he was claimed by the wrong parent. I don't think he's ever read a book that's past a third grade level and he doesn't even go to school. He's not book smart, but he's smart nonetheless. Despite being my inverse, he's funny and has a big heart.

I get out of bed and walk out of the door of Athena's cabin. I haven't been living here long, but everyone has already welcomed me with open arms.

I look around. The sun is already out, but it's just slightly past dawn. Four or five Demeter kids are gardening, as are the four and a half children of Dionysus, The Apollo cabin is devoid of life, and the Hermes cabin has an excess of it. The sound of metal clashing is ever present and is jumbled up by shouting and the roar of the river. I think of what I'm supposed to do today. Even though we are the children of gods, we still have activities and responsibilities, and I'm not going to get fed to a harpy simply because I forgot to show up for arts and crafts.

I gather my thoughts and walk to the rock wall. My bad, I meant the _molten_ rock wall. Yeah, they make us dodge literal lava for sport. I don't think there are safety regulations at camps for half-gods.

When I get there, a dozen kids are sitting by watching an Aphrodite boy trying and failing to make his way to the top. I've seen this boy around. He's pretty popular with the girls, but I've never had an actual conversation with the guy.

Doing tactile things like the rock wall are very easy for me. My ability makes it so. Most demigods that have powers have to activate them, but mine is sort of always on. I'm able to learn new things very quickly. This includes the complete schematic of footholds in our very own rock wall. The Aphrodite boy doesn't seem to have researched the plot of the wall very well.

The line had dwindled down to a few people. Since my name was first in alphabetical order, I was last on the climbing wall. I shake off my nerves and get up on it. A whistle sounds behind me and I start ascending with absolute proficiency. I'm not very physically active, but my body doesn't seem to notice. I glide from foothold to handhold with precision and steadiness. I welcome the heat though, since it has been consistently freezing for the past nine days.

I make it to the top in thirty seconds. That's nowhere near a camp record, but it's a personal record for the bookworm boy who can't lift a sword. Don't take this accomplishment away from me.

Anyway, I got some credit at the camp store for getting the top score of the hour. I've been saving up for a bow from the armory despite being absolutely incapable of aiming it. Maybe it'll come in handy for something else, but for now I only want it for aesthetics. Seeing as I have a while before I have to go to sword fighting in the arena, I decide to go check out that bow as soon as possible. I start making my way towards the armory. Along the way I wave to someone every minute or so. During the winter months most people at camp know each other.

When I get to the armory, the weapons master (nobody calls her that) Carly sits by making origami flowers. The nymph has to keep restarting because her hands turn to water and it ruins the paper.

"Don't judge me," she says. "That's a very common problem for nymphs."

"Really? I don't remember seeing many girls accidentally become trees. I wonder why."

"Because no girls want to be around you of course," she says quickly.

I say, "You got me. How did your tongue get so sharp? Did you use a whetstone?"

She holds up her soaked origami sword and says, "Did you come here to look for weapons or did you come to look at my pretty face?"

"I can't do both? Well then, I guess I'll have to choose the prior."

"Ah, boo. You want the bow right? The one with the poison arrows?"

"Yup," I say, "and I can pay for it solely with store credit."

"You do know purchases made with store credit don't go towards my paycheck right?"

"Yeah, but what do you need money for? You don't eat, you don't sleep, you don't need toilet paper, and you're literally made of water," I say.

"I like feeling independent."

She hands me a small plastic bag with a toothpick in it. Along with that she gives me a receipt, a quiver with twenty arrows, and a pen to sign my name. I scrawl my signature quickly and say goodbye. She waves her hand and waves her paper sword in the other. I jokingly blow her a kiss as I walk out the small building.

Where to next? Oh yeah, the arena. Before that I need to check out this bow. I'm not really sure how to get a bow from a toothpick, but I'll try anyway. After fiddling with it for a while the toothpick grew and bent and a golden strand appeared and strung itself in the bow. Along the body was a spattering of runes in a language I don't know. I put one of the arrows in and it starts shimerring in a greenish color. I play with it for a while and eventually close it by pushing the string in towards the bow. I put the arrow back in the quiver and continue on to the arena.

When I finally get there the rest of the Athena cabin and a few from the Hermes cabin are gathered around. Nobody is fighting yet, so we must not have started yet. The 20-year-old son of Hephaestus who is directing the activity shows up and starts pairing us off. Since only five of the fifteen Hermes kids are present, we outnumber them by two. Since me and Jimmy are the only ones who haven't chosen partners, we're put together. I don't hide my groan at the news. The whole point of sparring with kids from the other cabin is so they aren't aware of your weak points. Unfortunately, Jimmy knows mine: my hands don't always work.

Sometimes they'll just freeze up and not work. I'm not sure if this a disease or whatever, but it can get very tedious. It only ever happens when I don't want it to and lasts about fifteen second. I wouldn't say it's necessarily paralysis. More like the joints just don't work. It doesn't always happen, like on the rock wall, but I never know when it will.

That, plus the fact that Jimmy is a great tactician, makes this fight a decisive loss for me. Deciding to face the inevitable, I go up there and Jimmy is grinning.

I try my best to get started, but I can't even hold the sword long enough before it falls out of my hands. Given my sudden loss of dactyl functioning, I have no way to fight back.

I'm backed up into a corner and his hulking six feet and four inches is standing over me. "Sorry bub, but I can't fail again this year," he says.

First I see a wood pommel coming towards my face, then I see nothing at all.

 **Well there you guys go. That was the first chapter and an introduction to my OC Damien. I'm still accepting submissions, so get on it. More information to come soon.**

 **Also, please excuse any spelling or grammar errors. English is my first language, but I'm just not very intelligent.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Lila**

 **Your soul is black? Haha, I don't have one.**

* * *

Everybody is surrounded by death. It's like a bathing suit that clings to your skin; an aura that is inescapable.

What do you see when you meet someone new? Their eyes? Their hair? The way their moves when they talk?

I see their life's end.

You see a little boy playing on a swing. I see that, but I also see a bullet plunging into his skull.

You see a puppy playing fetch. I see that, but I also see her spine being smashed by a metal baseball bat.

It plagues me and my every thought. It reminds me of how fragile life is. My only solace is the fact that when I look in the mirror, I see me.

Only me. Only the glint of my amber eyes, the amalgam of shadows that is my hair, and the dark lines near my eye, the remnants of past bloodshed.

Despite this curse of mine, I know not of my passing. I have no aura, but I'm not sure why. Is it the nature of the ability? Am I immortal? Am I outside fate?

I have no idea.

The ability doesn't work on Chiron or Dionysus. Beings beyond fate don't really register. Strange, since it works on plants, but not them. It even works in cells, as I found out in my seventh grade science class.

I never forget what someone dies from. It's present like their name. John? Oh he's the guy that's going to die from a punctured lung in a car accident.

Except that conversation would never come about. I'm incapable of telling other people, and as far as I know I can't do anything to stop it.

The constant morbidity has made me numb to death. It's become a fact of life. I no longer fear it.

Just like any person with high self-esteem can laugh at themselves, I have learned to laugh in the face of death. It's pretty easy sometimes. For example, said seventh grade science teacher walked around with an ever-present vibe of "autoerotic asphyxiation." I got so many referrals that year because I'd laugh at him whenever he walked by in the hall.

Movies, books, and TV shows aren't very much fun anymore either. It even works on fictional characters. I enjoyed reading the four Harry Potter books because the themes of death but moreso because a plot point unknown to me turns my ability into nonsense. Somehow Harry, Voldemort, and his snake die in the same exact way but they also don't don't die at all. I can't wait for the next book to come out, if only to sate my curiosity.

My ability to see death was completely broken for the first time in December 3rd, 2000.

I was staying at camp for a few days. It was the place I went when the Albatross Huntress was out of commission and mild mannered Melanie Sanders took her place. I was planning on leaving the next day, but bounty hunting took backseat for saving the world I guess.

It was a cold day, and my fear of fire thoroughly dissuaded me from sitting at the campfire. Instead I decided to turn to the dead for some warmth.

I forgot to mention that I have more than one ability. If seeing death is my curse, speaking with it is my blessing. I can commune with the dead. Any advanced child of Hecate can do it too, but that requires prep, materials, and time. I can do it on a whim.

A son of Hermes who died in 1996 was in the cabin at the time. He says his name is Tony. When I met him, I saw that the way he died was by getting his soul ripped out. That's one of the stranger deaths I've seen.

Anyway, Tony knew of a place I could get warmed up at without fire. I jumped at the chance to get out of the crowded Hermes cabin. Those sleeping bags are extremely uncomfortable.

I follow Tony as he guides me toward the forest. I'm not afraid of anything in there, so I guess I didn't care much.

I'm talking with Tony about his sister, his past, and a few other things. Eventually he settles upon his ability to see the future. Apparently it even works in death.

He casually drops the lines to something that sounds like a prophecy.

 _"Twelve gifts, potential untold._

 _Eleven curses, pain to unfold._

 _Eleven souls forever entwined._

 _Twelve bodies left behind._

 _Two powers bestowed to each,_

 _And three levels for them to reach."_

I look at him in confusion. "Did you just give me a prophecy?"

"Yeah," he says, "but I don't know the last two lines. Asphodel really messes with your memory. I don't even know where I heard it."

"Do you think it could have anything to do with my ability to see how people die?" I ask.

He says, "I'm not sure. It seems like it, given the blessing and course nature of your powers. Maybe you should see if the oracle can give you any information on it."

"I just might. It seems too bi- What the hell?"

Sparring in the arena are two boys. One of which, James, I used to date. I haven't had many relationships, but James was something else. When the relationship ended, I was halfway convinced that the perpetrator of his death would be "scorned ex girlfriend," but alas, I am not easily capable of causing somebody to be eaten by a ichneumon. If it can kill a dragon or calcatrix, I'm sure it can kill a dolt like Jimmy.

I actually don't know what any of those animals are. Damien told me to write that down. He gave me a book on mythical creatures, but I suck at reading in English.

The boy he's fighting against doesn't seem as lucky though. Despite his sword sitting directly in front of him, he remains unarmed. James is slowly encroaching on him.

That's not what was weird about the situation though. The boy who had dropped his weapon didn't seem to have a foreseeable death. He had no aura. He was like me.

In a panic, I decided to intervene in the sparring session. Bending the shadows in the arena, I turned them against the two. Just as James brought down his sword toward the deathless boy's head, a torrent of darkness surrounded them.

Taking advantage of the distraction, the boy jumps out of the cloud and makes a grab for his sword. As James comes out, the boy hits him with the flat of the blade.

James gets disoriented and the boy breaks into a flurry of complicated martial arts moves. Landing a punch on his liver, James falls on the ground in a fetal position.

I admit it felt a little good, but you wouldn't be able to tell from my face. Conditioning has left my emotions purely internal. I can't have pesky feelings showing up on my face.

Given this turn of events, I decide to go talk to the boy. He's sitting on a bench fiddling with a bow. I don't see what the point of bows are. As far as I can tell, pistols work fine for killing people, and monsters too if the bullets are made of the right stuff.

I tap him on the shoulder to wake him up from the world in his head. He looks me up and down, as if he is making a mental assessment. It's as if I'm a video game character and he's sizing up my stats to see which skill he should invest. It doesn't feel very nice.

"What's your name?"

"Damien. Why do you care?"

In my usual monotone, I say, "I have the ability to see exactly how people die. You're the first person I've ever seen that's not me that is immune to this ability."

"And what does that exactly does that mean?" he asks.

"Are you aware that you have no fate?"

 **Well there you have it. That was Lila, known as Melanie to you, the daughter of Hades. Thanks Pixelfun20 for sending her in. I hope this lived up to your expectations.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Jack and Riley**

 **Supernatural super glue is not a super power.**

* * *

Jack didn't very much like the winter. It was too cold for sports, he couldn't run in the snow without getting some in his shoes, and all of the girls he liked hanging out with were deadset on ignoring him.

A bummer of a season indeed.

Of course, he couldn't do anything about it. Everybody loves the snow. This had reduced him to the only person left in the Apollo cabin.

Even his sister Riley was out doing arts and crafts with a couple of other Apollo kids. She disliked the tables, as they were covered in loose sparkles. She kept her glitter in nice, orderly containers.

If Riley got all of Apollo's artistic ability, Jack definitely got his musicality. This is confirmed by a quick glance at a freshly polished ukelele to his right. He liked to think that it worked for serenades, which is his favorite type of don't, by the way.

Fed up with his solitude, Jack got up, grabbed his jacket and headed out the door.

Despite him and Riley having been at camp for two years already, Jack never really got used to the cold temperatures. He believes he has an excuse though, seeing as he quite literally lived in a rainforest for years.

On his way to the arts and crafts area to meet up with his sister, he got a little sidetracked. Of course, that's not very rare for a demigod. Attention is very fleeting for him.

A voice that sounded a bit like a whistle was whispering to him. It was as if it was beckoning him toward a place he wasn't aware of. Suddenly forgetful of what he was doing two minutes earlier, Jack chose the whimsical (and kinda stupid) choice of searching for the origin.

Of course, besides being annoying, this whistle voice was in a completely unrecognizable language. Then he felt it: a compulsion, probably the strongest he's ever felt to go towards the woods.

Now, the woods are full of creepy crawly creatures. Jack is in no way a friend of any creepy crawly creature. Jack in the woods might get pretty bad, but at this point he didn't really have a choice in the matter.

After a minute, the voice ceased being a whistle and evolved to more of a sweet, feminine one. It sounded liked honey, and as anybody who's ever talked to Jack could tell you, girls who sound like honey are his weakness.

He eventually got into a full force sprint. His legs were on fire and his heart was beating a mile a minute, but he couldn't stop even if he wanted to. The voice got louder and louder, turning from a whisper to actual shouting.

The lady sounded like she was talking with the back of her throat. It was as if she was speaking Hebrew or some kind of Arabic language.

And then something knocked him off of his feet. Literally.

Opening his eyes, he finally registered that it was dark. Thankful for his often useless ability to glow, a strange sensation beneath his skin became a lot more noticeable than before. Pushing the humming feeling to the surface, Jack embodied his last name of Lux and lit up the area.

The first thing he saw was the groaning form of Riley lying adjacent him. Her hands were all scratched up from the rocks she landed on. Being the overprotective brother he is, he stumbled toward her.

"Riley? Are you okay?" he said with urgency.

Despite some stray blonde hairs and a bruise on her cheekbone, she was unharmed. "Yes, I'm fine, but please get out of my face. My eyes hurt just looking at you."

About to take mock offense, Jack suddenly realized she wasn't joking. He backed off and let her have her space, dimming the light coming from his body.

The cuts and bruises on her body were already fading. Jack had seen her healing ability in use before, especially seeing as it had saved his life before, but he wasn't quite aware of how quickly it worked. Gripping his arm, the gash in his shoulder (which adrenaline left him in the dark about) began to close shut.

Jack was left with a tear in his jacket, blood running down his arm, and a fresh scar. Of course, Riley could get rid of said scar, but all of her equipment was still in the cabin.

"Why exactly are you in the woods?" he asked her.

"I was looking for someone. I could ask you the same thing," she said.

"This 'someone' wouldn't happen to be a woman speaking in another language, huh?"

"Yeah," she said, "it sounded like she was doing an incantation or something. I believe she was doing it in Aramaic."

"Aramaic? What's Aramaic?"

"A Northwest Semitic language. I'm a bit confused though. I've heard Aramaic, and it wasn't like that. What she was using sounded more ancient, hollow."

"Well," I say, "We might as well go looking for her then."

* * *

Riley had been pretty conflicted about looking for the owner of the voice. At least she had an excuse when the shrill noise was calling her to it.

Riley is a 'play it safe' kind of person. She supports her family in all of their pursuits, but she never really had any time to pursue anything of her own. Of course, she liked her life. Painting her feelings, reading any trashy romance novel she can find. It's a quaint existence, especially for a demigod.

Now, she was seeking out danger. Despite the fact that that is usually her brother's thing, she found herself pretty excited at the prospect of adventure.

She'd always had that hole in her, the longing for more. She tried to fill it by changing her routine, but it never really worked. For example, she had been trying out photo-realism for the past week, she started wearing brighter colors, and taking piano lessons from her sister.

Walking through the woods, at the edge of danger. It was exhilarating

After around twenty minutes of walking and fifteen of I spy, Riley about had enough.

"I spy with my little eye... that moss-covered rock we've seen six times already," she said.

"Hmph," Jack grunts. "At least we know we haven't walked to Canada."

"Is that really a good thing? Canadians have maple syrup. I'm 90% certain we'd die if we tried to eat the sap from these trees."

"We might die I'd we don't eat something soon. It might be our last option," Jack said.

Riley hit him on the head teasingly. "We've been out here for twenty-some minutes. Not gonna starve."

"I didn't eat breakfast this morning." As if on cue, Jack's stomach started grumbling.

"What are you talking about? I brought you back three breakfast burritos from the pavilion."

"It's not very filling..." Jack said.

Riley said, "I spy with my little eye a floating lady in a green dress holding some sort of... orb?"

"That's oddly speci- Whoa!"

There, floating in the center of a clearing, was a transparent woman with caramel-colored skin and striking emerald eyes that matched her modern chiton dress.

Her golden hair was pulled into a ponytail which seemed to be gravitating toward the sphere in her hands.

"Uh... geia sou?" Jack says.

"It's geia sas, not sou," Riley says.

"But that's plural. She's only one person."

"It's formal since you've never met her," Riley says matter-of-factly.

"But they don't do that in Ancient Greek. Why do they do it now?" Jack asks.

At this point, the woman in the green dress was strong at them, seriously confused. Even the orb in her hands was humming curiously.

"Prior to the nineteenth century, no formal case existed in any Hellenic dialect. Due to influence from the French and their language, the formal form (which also occurs in most romances and takes the plural form) was intro-"

"Shut up already!"

Both of their heads snapped toward the woman. Her gaze was intense upon the two.

"Oh, she speaks English..." Jack mumbled.

"Shahab, how long has it been?" she said looking at both of them. "The Golden Age of course. I still remember the flavor of your blood. It seems you're no longer just one Shahab, but two."

"Who are you?" Jack and Riley said in unison, which elicits a confused glimpse to each other.

"You've forgotten me Shahab? I am Nebheni, Breath of the Sky in the tongue of my people, but I have gone by many names over the years I've existed."

"And what do you mean about us being Shahab." This was, again, said in unison.

"One soul in two bodies. The child of Apollo was always fairly capricious, Nikiphoros in particular."

"Wait," Riley says, "are you saying we share one soul."

"Yes, exactly. Seek me out on the solstice. You were always my favorite Shahab. Maybe I'll spare you when I destroy the world."

Before Riley or Jack can contest it, she dissapears. The orb she was holding turned red and started emitting the same shrill whistle sound from earlier.

"I'm no son of Hephaestus," Jack said, "but I'm pretty sure that ball thing is about to explode."

As they were about to turn around and run, the orb burst with a wave of concussive force. Riley and Jack were blasted back.

Getting up, Riley realized that Jack was standing too. A surprised look was on his face. Riley was confused until she saw what he was looking at.

On Riley's right wrist and Jack's left was a ghostly chain connecting their hands to each other's.

"We need to tell someone about this."

And yes, they said it in unison.

 **This definitely took a lot more time than it should've, seeing as I wrote this whole thing in an hour and a half. Only one chapter today unless I can bring myself to write again.**


End file.
